A national coaches association poll ranked Hillsdale College 15th going into the national meet.
Nice job, coaches.
The Hillsdale College women did indeed take 15th at the NCAA Division II cross country national meet on Nov. 23. The meet, held in Spokane, Wash., marked the first championship berth for the Charger women’s team in three years.
Despite hitting their pre-race ranking, the team wasn’t entirely satisfied with their race, said head coach Andrew Towne
Even so, “It’s been a very good season,” Towne said. “Definitely something to be proud of for sure.”
The weather on race day was perfect, Hillsdale runners said: high 30s, dry, and sunny. The course was narrow, however, and the nearly 250 runners pushed each other around, especially early in the race.
“During the meet, just having that quantity of people there yelling and screaming and right up in your face – that’s a different cross country race,” Towne said.
Sophomore Kristina Galat led the women at Spokane, placing 63rd in a time of 22:15. She said she was running for top 40, which is All-American.
“But I felt like I ran as hard as I could, so I was satisfied in that way,” Galat said.
The Oren sisters finished second and third for the team. Sophomore Emily, 91st, ran a time of 22:33, and freshman Molly, 108th, crossed the line in 22:41.
“The race was average,” said senior captain Victoria McCaffrey, who finished two seconds and one place behind Molly Oren. It wasn’t what we could have been, and definitely not up to our potential.”
While she has NCAA eligibility left, she’ll spend next semester in D.C. with the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program. Nationals was the last race of McCaffrey’s collegiate career.
“I think it will really hit me over break,” she said. “I’ll probably sleep for about a week and then wake up and just be like ‘oh shoot, I’m not going to have this anymore.’”
Junior Chelsea Kilgore rounded out the top five. She placed 133rd in 22:53.
The team scored scored 413 points in total.
Besides McCaffrey, Hillsdale returns all its women cross country runners next year.
Towne said teams travel to the national meet hoping to run their best race.
“We didn’t do that,” Towne said. “But it came down to a learning experience for us.”
Galat echoed Towne’s sentiment.
“Now that we’ve made it and know how we can do it, I think there will be a mentality shift and we can be more confident with races like that,” Galat said.
Grand Valley State University won the Division II national title with 54 points. Saginaw Valley State University, the one other GLIAC team that competed at the race, placed 11th with 304.
